Month: September 2016

Well, we now have three kids into the double-digit age range. Micah turned ten last week – while we were in Kenya. We actually spent most of his birthday in Nairobi – doing some pretty cool stuff.

First we visited an elephant orphanage. OK – first things first – Micah did what Micah does best – and ate his weight in breakfast foods

that would be feeding a giraffeMILKSHAKES! DID YOU HEAR ME? MILKSHAKES WITH ICE CREAM AND CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES INSIDE! IN A COFFEE SHOP…IN A MALL! A MALL!We got up to Kijabe in time for supper with our Serge team there – complete with cake (well – actually two cakes as there was another birthday later in the week)

We are so proud of who Micah is becoming – the resilience that he’s shown despite all the changes that he’s endured. In fact – when I started looking at pictures from his birthday’s past – I realised that he has only ever had three birthdays while living in the same place.

Last year – for Micah’s 9th birthday we camped out along Lake Kivu in Southern Rwanda

The year before that was during our 7 months in Canada – and for Micah’s 8th birthday we were actually in the midst of our epic road trip – and were at Lake Michigan – with the Balls

lunch on the beach

7 years old – back in France – also with the Balls. And once again opening Lego with Josh at his side – who appears to be just as excited (seems to be a theme). This would be his third birthday while living in St Martin d’Uriage.

6 years old – with the Balls (the other ones – the relatives – this really is kind of odd) – in St M d’U

5 years old – 2nd birthday in France – 1s one in our house in St Martin d’Uriage

4 years old – just a few days after we moved to France – celebrating with the Simoni’s at their house (where we were temporarily crashing while looking for a place to live) just before they moved to UAE.

not so sure how he feels about les boulles in Grenoble

3 years old – first one in our newly renovated house in Edmonton

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2 years old – living at Susan’s parents place as we wait for our house sale to go through

recruiting some help from big brother

1 year old – in our first place in edmonton

August 25, 2006 – we become a family of 5.

(not sure exactly what that look is that I had going – but it was 10 years ago – I’m sure it was totally cool then)

And the day before – Aug 24 in the afternoon – Susan being about as pregnant as possible. Later this day (about 11:50) we arrive at the hospital parking lot – where Micah is almost born – and just a minute or two after midnight on the 25th, he was born.

…and another rock. The name literally means “between the rocks” (or actually now that I think about it, maybe it’s just – in the middle of two guys named Pierre ) – but for our family it means a lot more.

If our time in France this summer was a chance to be in places we love, and a chance to spend time with dear friends – then it’s hard to beat our time in this mediaeval village just outside of the town of Sisteron, where provence meets the alps.

Entrepierres is where we were when we started to think and dream for the very first time about something like moving to Africa to do the kind of work we’re doing now. In fact – we were thinking of places to investigate -and realized that collectively our African geography was so bad we required the aid of a beachball-globe from the pool for us to even know where some countries were in relation to each other.

As always – there was lots of biking, running, hiking, scootering, swimming etc – which perhaps explains why we ate so much.

And we did what we do whenever we’re together in Southern France: WE. ATE. SO. WELL.

You see, when you have two families with 4 kids growing kids each, plus adults – who all used to live in France and very much miss eating real French food – you get a bit of a binge-mentality. We would go into town to buy bread only every other day or so (I know – really not French…but hey…we never said we were) – but even then we would very often have to buy 18 (or more) baguette at a time! Once we sent a couple of the kids into the boulangerie to buy the bread – and they weren’t too eager to give the kids that much – I think they thought they were being pranked. Nope – just a lot of people who apparently haven’t yet read Wheat Belly. (in our defence – we do try to limit our bread intake to 1 baguette per person per day)

buying chevre directly from the farm

fresh veg from the market

yeah…that’s how we roll

a typical cheese board

We (the Dad’s) also decided to take 8 kids (our three oldest, their 4 + a friend who was vacationing with them) for an overnight campout (the day after I attempted a 40km trail race…so at least I had a good warm-up). So we saddled up everyone’s backpacks with tents and sleeping bags, and water and food (and tried to limit the boys to 1 knife each) and headed right up the small mountain directly in front of the house.

Uncle Rob’s infamous “Hot Dog Soup.” I don’t want to give away the secret recipe – but it does involve cooking cut-up hotdogs in the broth of Raman noodles. 1 pot=so much goodness. Pro Tip: rinse out the pot well before heating water for coffee.

I get the feeling that these are the kinds of trips, and the kinds of times that our kids will be talking about 40 years from now.